I’ve been reading Tim Spector’s Food For Life  and very much enjoying learning more about the science of what’s in in our food and how we can unlock its potential for health. What if the key to better gut health was hidden in the colourful fruits and vegetables we eat every day? Here is where polyphenols are the star of the show.

Polyphenols, are a type of phytonutrients – naturally occurring bioactive chemicals found in plants including those we eat. Plants contain these chemicals as they act as both protection and medicine for anything attacking them (such as virus’, bacteria, bugs etc) and what I love is that these protective qualities are transferred to us when we eat them!

There are thought to be over 8000 different types of polyphenols, but they are still being discovered. Polyphenols are what give fruit and vegetables their bright and beautiful colours – such as the blue and purples in blackberries and aubergines from a groups of polyphenols called anthocyanins; the green in broccoli comes from chlorophyll and oranges in carrots and butternut squash from carotenoids. Which is why we are often told to ‘eat a rainbow’ as each different polyphenol has a different action on our body and eating a variety of polyphenols can help protect us from the root causes of many chronic illness’.

As well as being powerful antioxidants for our bodies, polyphenols also play such a crucial role in shaping our gut health having a positive effect on our gut microbiome. Because of this they are often added to nutritional supplements but the good news is they are also so easy for us to get through a reasonably diverse whole food diet. They are not only present in fruits and vegetables but also wholegrains, teas, coffee, herbs and spices. Polyphenols are what contributes to giving certain foods their ‘superfood’ status such as resveratrol in red wine, flavonol in dark chocolate and catechins in green tea. But in reality I don’t subscribe to the notion of superfoods – the humble cabbage is as worthy to me as as a goji berry and what really matters is diversity and variety in how we eat.

But where does gut health come into all this? When we eat foods containing polyphenols, they are not fully absorbed in the small intestine but instead most travels down to the colon, where they interact with the gut microbiota feeding them and promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium and inhibiting the growth of pathogenic (‘bad’) bacteria – and so we see a more balanced gut microbiota. This interaction leads to the production of bioactive compounds such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) which also  enhances our gut health.

Polyphenols have also been shown to reduce gut inflammation by modulating our immune response as well as protecting the gut lining reducing down the risk of ‘leaky gut’ which we are learning is associated with so many chronic health conditions. 

I’ve so enjoyed learning more about these tiny compounds which have such a dramatic effect on our health and have started the new year investing more in eating a wide range of colourful foods.

I’m looking forward to learning even more next month at our online gut health conference on Friday  21 February – tickets are still available for those interested.

NCIM Conference: Integrative Approaches to Gut Health – NCIM – National Centre for Integrative Medicine